Monday, August 22, 2011

In a weekend full of nostalgic reboots and remakes, audiences shunned leftovers and opted instead for the buzzworthy movie of the moment as “The Help” held off all challenges to the #1 spot at the weekend box office.Taking that rare climb into the #1 spot, only the third film to achieve such a feat since December 2009, “The Help” saw a minimal decline in attendance (-23.1%) and earned a strong foothold in the marketplace as a formidable box office draw.

The subject of much controversy and debate, including this article by our own Robert Hamer, “The Help” began to generate discussions reminiscent of the box office breakout that “The Blind Side” experienced in the fall of 2009.Projected to be a mid-level achiever, “The Blind Side” blossomed and drew rave reviews from audiences across all demographic and geographic locations.Shot for a mere $29 million, “The Blind Side” concluded its theatrical run with a $256.0 million haul, earned nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress, and saw lead actress Sandra Bullock win her first Oscar.

Tracking to this point shows that “The Help” does not have that same far-reaching appeal…yet.Where “The Blind Side” gained audiences in its first few weeks, “The Help” has dipped slightly, amassing a 12-day total of $71.3 million stateside.“The Blind Side” had just left $100 million in the dust at the end of its 10th day in theaters.

Reports indicate that DreamWorks are settling in for a nice, long run into the fall with “The Help” and have already indicated steps are in place for a huge Oscar push targeting Best Picture, Director, Lead and Supporting Actress (but whom and where?), Adapted Screenplay, and technicals including Costume Design, Cinematography, Original Song,and Original Score.Those dismissive of the film's stability over the coming weeks should look forward. Doing so, you will find films that may find a tough time unseating the racially-themed drama.

Guillermo del Toro’s produced remake of “Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark” could draw a nice opening, but as this weekend proved, audiences have likely reached saturation with remakes and reboots and are seeking out fresher material.The Weinstein Company’s R-rated comedy, “Our Idiot Brother”, starring Paul Rudd is playing fine with critics but is suffering with a lackluster marketing campaign..Elsewhere, Zoe Saldana’s “Colombiana” is drawing dismal buzz thus far and with two films, potentially not screened for critics, arriving in the first week of September (“Apollo 18” and “Shark Night 3D”), “The Help” might see robust success for some time.

For the second consecutive weekend, four films drop into theaters and this weekend, virtually all of them were met with disinterest from the populace.What happened, where and why they went wrong, as well as analysis regarding a handful of indies that are performing strong, The Weekend Breakdown, and Top 40 Most Attended Films after the cut!

CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D

Nikki Finke at Deadline reports today that Lionsgate higher-ups are dumbfounded that “Conan The Barbarian” failed to draw interest from moviegoers.Makes me wonder if they actually watched the film (they did) and whether or not they knew what they had on their hands (probably...).

Starring relative unknown Jason Momoa, a physical cross-pollination of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Billy Zane, Momoa simply was not accepted by fans of the series as their new Conan.Lionsgate sent out press releases touting how the original Conan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, saw a private screening of the film and liked it a lot, but no one cared and/or stayed away from the endorsement, perhaps because Schwarzenegger’s reputation is not nearly as bulletproof post-scandal as it has been in the past.

When critics ravaged the film, Lionsgate scaled expectations way back from north of $20 million back down to $15 million.Then when the Friday numbers arrived, Lionsgate had little else to say.Their $90 million production was a bomb and limped through the weekend with a $10 million haul.Perhaps Lionsgate now realize why this project sat in turnaround and slept on executive desks for so long.61% of the gross came from 3D exhibitions.

FRIGHT NIGHT 3D

With all the bad news centered around “Conan The Barbarian”, Lionsgate officials may be muttering, “Fright Night”, and snickering to one another, as the highly anticipated Colin Farrell R-rated vampire flick bled out and finished in a surprisingly poor 6th place.DreamWorks and Disney got the critics on their side with this one, carrying a TomatoMeter around the mid-70% range, and tracking initially looked good for the film.Shot for a modest $30 million, execs for both Disney and DreamWorks were in tune with a $14-$16 million launch for the film.They could not have been more wrong.

When the actual numbers came in, following the estimates for the weekend, “Fright Night” performed worse than expected, finishing with only $7.71 million.This placed the film a scant $11k ahead of “Final Destination 3”, which slid a worse-than-expected 57% and will likewise struggle to make its budget back. "Fright Night" is likely going to not come close to the $30 million needed to make it profitable stateside.

What “Fright Night” seems to tell us is that interest in vampire films not featuring Bella or the Cullens is dying quickly, 3D is running out of its latest 15 minutes of fame, and/or audiences are simply fed up with remakes, reboots, and relaunches. Speaking of which...

SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD 4D

While I had the joy of introducing my 5-year old daughter to Robert Rodriguez’s still inventive and tremendously entertaining 2001 film, “Spy Kids”, via Netflix InstantWatch, a handful of other families took a peek behind the curtain at “Spy Kids 4D”, which relaunched the franchise for the first time since the trilogy concluded with its “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over” in 2003.

Brought home for a tight budget of $27 million, and featuring the gimmicky pull of a 4th dimension “Aroma Card”, “Spy Kids 4D” opened at a dismal $11.7 million, far and away the least-attended and worst-performing opening ever for the resuscitated franchise.While the film featured the original stars Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara reprising their original roles, the film brought forth Rodriguez favorite, Jessica Alba, and “Community” TV star Joel McHale as a new generation of parents involved with gadgetry, spies, and the OSS Spy Kids program.

The bottom line here is that many within the industry were wondering why The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films felt the need to bring this franchise forward to 2011 in the first place and many viewed it as a shameless money grab.Alarms went off when the film was not screened for North American critics and the reviews arriving from a handful of overseas critics were lackluster at best.

A clunky tag line, double digit costs per ticket to see the film in 3D, and an idea whose time has clearly passed, “Spy Kids: All The Time In The World” may make its budget back, but looks to be instantly forgettable.

ONE DAY (IN GLORIOUS 2D...)

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess play friends who, after one magical night together on July 15, 1988, agree to meet every July 15 over the course of 20 years.This romantic drama failed to click and Focus Features must have known this opening was going to be soft, as they slashed their opening theater counts back to a little more than 1,700 locations.With a $5.0 million launch, the film may turn a meager profit on its $15 million production budget, but critics were harsh on the picture, surprisingly condemning Hathaway’s British accent and noting a lack of chemistry between the two star-crossed leads.

SARAH’S KEY AND SENNA SEE STRONG GAINS…

Despite the “Spy Kids” debacle, The Weinstein Company continued to see good notices regarding their contemplative World War II drama, “Sarah’s Key”.Increasing by 100 more screens to 201 locations, “Sarah’s Key” did not deliver a huge per screen average, but saw its total increase 58.4% and its box office rise to $3.1 million in 31 days of a strategic platform release.

Vaulting to the forefront of Best Documentary Oscar discussions this week, “Senna” moved from 2 screens to 14, and saw business ramp up 116.5% to a total weekend take of $159k.Across all releases with more than one location, “Senna” delivered the biggest per screen average of the weekend, with $11,365 taken in per site.

RED STATE ACHIEVES A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE…

Kevin Smith’s renegade distribution plan for his new horror/satire “Red State” reached an impressive milestone over the weekend, eclipsing the $1 million mark for the self-distributed roadshow Smith has taken all over North America.Concluding its Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles on August 25, the film will arrive via Video on Demand outlets on September 1 - all in advance of a more traditional theatrical release starting October 19.

OTHER INDEPENDENT OPENINGS...

Sneaking in quietly under the radar was “Amigo”, the latest film from writer/director John Sayles, which takes place in 1900 during the Phillippine-American war.Distributed by Variance Films, “Amigo” had a decent $37k opening at its 10 locations.

Music Box Films widened its sexually-charged French political film, “The Names Of Love” and saw a 160% boom with its playing on 20 screens.The studio also dropped another French film, “Mozart’s Sister”, at 7 locales and saw an encouraging $34k start for the adaptation of the 2005 novel which reimagines the life of the intriguing character.

REMAINING TOP 12 FILMS

“Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” held impressively in its third weekend, outwitting the “Spy Kids” and every other new release as mentioned above.With a 42% slide, the film has earned $133.6 million thus far in its first 17 days.Worldwide, the film has banked more than $256 million.

“The Smurfs” earned back its $110 million production budget with North American ticket sales over the weekend, dipping 43%.Worldwide the little blue men and woman have delivered nearly $330 million in just 24 days.

THE DISCOUNT HOUSE

No films made the leap to the second circuit over the weekend.

THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN

#1 Film - "The Help", earned $20.0 million in its second weekend.

Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "The Expendables", earned $17.0 million in its second weekend.

Biggest Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "The Help", $7,442 at 2,690 locations ($20.0 million for the weekend, $71.3 million cumulative)